Decoding reveals the neural representation of perceived and imagined musical sounds

David R Quiroga-Martinez; Gemma Fernández-Rubio; Leonardo Bonetti; Kriti G Achyutuni; Athina Tzovara; Robert T Knight; Peter Vuust

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3002858

Decoding reveals the neural representation of perceived and imagined musical sounds

David R Quiroga-Martinez, Gemma Fernández-Rubio, Leonardo Bonetti, Kriti G Achyutuni, Athina Tzovara, Robert T Knight, Peter Vuust

Department of Clinical Medicine - Center for Music In the Brain

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Vividly imagining a song or a melody is a skill that many people accomplish with relatively little effort. However, we are only beginning to understand how the brain represents, holds, and manipulates these musical "thoughts." Here, we decoded perceived and imagined melodies from magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain data (N = 71) to characterize their neural representation. We found that, during perception, auditory regions represent the sensory properties of individual sounds. In contrast, a widespread network including fronto-parietal cortex, hippocampus, basal nuclei, and sensorimotor regions hold the melody as an abstract unit during both perception and imagination. Furthermore, the mental manipulation of a melody systematically changes its neural representation, reflecting volitional control of auditory images. Our work sheds light on the nature and dynamics of auditory representations, informing future research on neural decoding of auditory imagination.

Original language	English
Article number	e3002858
Journal	PLoS Biology
Volume	22
Issue	10
Number of pages	17
ISSN	1545-7885
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002858
Publication status	Published - 21 Oct 2024

Keywords

Humans
Music/psychology
Imagination/physiology
Magnetoencephalography/methods
Auditory Perception/physiology
Male
Female
Adult
Young Adult
Acoustic Stimulation
Brain Mapping/methods
Sound
Brain/physiology
Auditory Cortex/physiology

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10.1371/journal.pbio.3002858Licence: CC0

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abstract = "Vividly imagining a song or a melody is a skill that many people accomplish with relatively little effort. However, we are only beginning to understand how the brain represents, holds, and manipulates these musical {"}thoughts.{"} Here, we decoded perceived and imagined melodies from magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain data (N = 71) to characterize their neural representation. We found that, during perception, auditory regions represent the sensory properties of individual sounds. In contrast, a widespread network including fronto-parietal cortex, hippocampus, basal nuclei, and sensorimotor regions hold the melody as an abstract unit during both perception and imagination. Furthermore, the mental manipulation of a melody systematically changes its neural representation, reflecting volitional control of auditory images. Our work sheds light on the nature and dynamics of auditory representations, informing future research on neural decoding of auditory imagination.",

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Decoding reveals the neural representation of perceived and imagined musical sounds. / Quiroga-Martinez, David R ; Fernández-Rubio, Gemma ; Bonetti, Leonardo et al.
In: PLoS Biology, Vol. 22, No. 10, e3002858, 21.10.2024.

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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AU - Knight, Robert T

AU - Vuust, Peter

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PY - 2024/10/21

Y1 - 2024/10/21

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Decoding reveals the neural representation of perceived and imagined musical sounds

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